Top Democrat in Michigan House accuses GOP of leaving Pontiac students without toilet paper

Cuts to school funding have trickled down to bathrooms in Pontiac schools, the top Democrat in the Michigan House of Representatives said Friday.

House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, a Democrat from Auburn Hills, said cuts by Republicans in the Legislature to public school funding have led to a shortage of toilet paper and other basic supplies in the Pontiac School District.

"It might be funny if it weren't true. Our kids in Pontiac can't even use textbooks in place of toilet paper, because classrooms don't have enough of those, either," Greimel said in a statement.

"Since the start of this year, the hard-working and dedicated teachers of Pontiac have been paying out-of-pocket for toilet paper in their own classrooms. What's happening here is utterly shameful, and all the more so because it could have been avoided."

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A spokesman for Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, a Republican from Marshall, said Greimel's statements aren't constructive.

"My thought is that it is full of political rhetoric, and it is unfortunate that the House Minority leader would rather bicker than work with us on real solutions," Ari Adler said on Friday.

"The numbers that they used for statewide cuts to schools are not accurate -- they do not give the full picture. We have done many things over the past couple of years to reduce expense for schools, and that allows them to put more dollars into the classroom," Adler said.

"I think that when you look at the billions of dollars the state spends on K-12 education, if schools are not able to provide basic supplies, then they need to closely analyze their administrative costs."

Greimel accused Republicans in the Legislature of cutting school funding in order to pay for corporate tax breaks, leading to the Pontiac School District having to lay off 42 teachers last year.

"Republicans don't mind that their slash-and-burn approach to school funding is hurting our kids and destroying their right to a quality education," the House Minority Leader said.

"When the Pontiac schools faced a $2.4 million shortfall in funding from the state, it responded by laying off dozens of teachers and cutting spending on necessities such as textbooks and toilet paper," he said.

"The only possible result of that is having our kids crammed into overcrowded classrooms that lack even the most basic supplies. Our children deserve better than this, and that's why House Democrats demand that education funding be restored and that Republicans stop raiding the school aid fund to pay for massive corporate tax breaks."

Adler said legislators have made budget changes that helped school districts direct more funds to the classroom.

"We made changes in the past couple of years: The state covered some of the costs of retirement pensions for school districts, and what it actually meant was that it was worth more to school districts for us to do that than if we had handed over more dollars per pupil," the spokesman said.

"Even if you look at the years where we were increasing per-pupil funding, a lot of that was turned over to pay for pension costs."